Gemini 1° (May 22)

 

Here we are in the tricky sign of Gemini and let the games begin. This time of year coincides with my having to deal with a surplus of personalities. Which can itself be, well, tricky. We took a long beautiful walk to the South End and had a little brekkie at The Buttery. It amazes me how clueless staff at places like that are (during the days). It is like that in London too. I find, however, that in places like France and Italy there is more pride and professionalism in the work of someone, even as such, working a little breakfast counter somewhere. The French and Italians make that shit chic. They don’t phone it in the way we do, especially. It does drive me a bit bonkers. Stopped off at the bank and then another big stroll up the avenue. I had a giant breakfast burrito so I won’t eat again. After our client this afternoon, we walk all the way to Harvard Square. Tried to eat at Longfellow where we made a rezzie but the ladies next to us were so loud (bursts of faux laughter) and wait staff walked behind my chair which was just behind a column and bumped me every time and there was a private party taking over the whole upstairs and they had a lousy wine and food selection so really the place is only good for people who like to cocktail. So we high-tailed it downstairs to Alden & Harlow where we had the best meal we’ve had there in a real long while. Andrew was working and he is adorable and always has the best wine recommendations and we had a blast, then headed over to the American Repertory Theater to see We Live in Cairo, which was quite expert.

The sign of Virgo rules the digestion which also serves as a metaphor for our conscience—munching on experience it metes out the nutrients in our life from the detritus. In the sculpting of Pandora, Hepaestus utilizes the best features of each of the goddesses, making her a composite of these. Pandora means “all given.” We see the archetypal roots here of the Virgo male character which can lean toward the Svengali, being (a sometime male-chauvinist) Pygmalion, the Henry Higgins molding his Eliza Doolittle; and we see, too, the roots of the Virgo woman being something of a borrower herself—of all the women in the Zodiac she is most likely to cherry pick elements of style and even personality from other women she admires. It can come as a shock to her friends to see her morphing into them before their eyes. Slowly though she will morph out of being a collection of traits into a unique composition of influences, which is true of all of us to some extent. She will also let herself beSvengali’d (if we can make that a verb) doing little to stop it. The possessive implication of My Fair Ladyobjectifies the female; but we know, from both that musical or the original myth, that Eliza, the modern Galatea, being thus objectified, to use the vernacular, gave her life, literally in Galatea’s case, Pygmalion’s love being a most animating force that turned her from ivory to flesh. Galatea means “milk-white” a nod to the purity element inheritant in the Virgin sign.

The Virgo virgin depicted in the Zodiac, however, is not that Pandora or Galatea but rather the goddess Kore (who becomes Persephone, the Scorpio woman archetype, once Hades-Pluto abducts and drags her into his underworld). Kore is the “daughter,” or more accurately the maiden-form of Demeter, earth goddess of the harvest, correlating to Virgo’s August- September time frame, ending the first half of the astrological year, at Autumnual Equinox, the start of the next sign of LIbra. Demeter is also called Pandora, but in her case the name translates to “all giving.” She giveth and she taketh away. Demeter brings forth the bounties of the Earth when she is reunited with Kore half the year, then plunges us into winter forcing us to grieve along with her, the other half of the year, when Persephone takes her underworld throne. That is the power of the Virgo woman, in particular, who makes herself useful in the lives of others but, if unappreciated, recuses herself, leaving those who’ve come to rely on her at a loss. In our book Sextrologythe Virgo male and female chapters are called The Vehicleand The Vessel, respectively, both of which speak to being a catalyst and a crucible for substantive change, that either emanates from or is filtered through (or both) the human conscience.

In astrology, Chiron represents “the wounded healer” which is spot on Virgo theme. Long before Brené Brown made it her eternal watchword, we assigned the (positive) energy of  “vulnerability” to the Virgo experience, in so far as it relates to humility, which translates to the acceptance of ones own human frailty. Virgo is not, as a rule, the competitive type. The energy of Virgo demures. We see this reflected in the sign’s symbol: The Mother-Earth (Mater/matter) M-shaped symbol with a final flourish that loops back, inward, onto  and crossing itself, creating a hymen effect as befits astrology’s Virgin. This stands in contrast to the near-exact M-shaped symbol of Scorpio whose final flourish instead projects outward in a stinging arrow. We here see, in glyph-y form, the connection between the virgin Kore (Virgo experience) who becomes Persephone, the maker we all meet, in her Chotonian, underworld (Scorpio experience) aspect. Virgo is about purity lost, loss in general, as it relates to disability. Vulnerability, or as we prefer, humility, is an important aspect of the human condition, probably the most human among them. And Virgo people are, by all accounts, the most seemingly hurt of individuals, that being part of their superpower. It all depends on the nature of the Virgo individual—whether or not s/he is capable of taking some licks and being all the better for it; or if it, instead, creates a chip on the old shoulder, where a defense of victimhood, blaming others. instead defines the personality. There is little room to go there. Whereas, when one embraces ones vulnerability one can overcome it and empathize with others and allow it to positively change you on that alchemical level.

For Virgo, change is slow, despite the fact they may seem to suddenly disappear, ditching friends and whole social circles without notice. By paying closer attention you might have seen the Virgo straddling a new enclave, while still drawing benefits from an existing one. The sign rules the ages of 35-42, what has traditionally constituted middle-age (despite sweeping arrested development in our culture) and its namesake crisis; and Virgo people act-out from that perspective all their life, metaphorically getting facelifts or hairplugs or buying a red porsche, that is to say altering the shape and path of their own existence out of a sort of fear of mortality. Virgo people thus mold themselves to fit new situations and social groups. They will ingratiate themselves, serving purposes and working angles they deem necessary to gain acceptance. It’s like they take loss into their own hands, deciding what to lose, themselves, before it is taken away by external forces.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
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