Virgo Dates: August 23 – September 22

Symbol: The Virgin

Mode + Element: Mutable Earth

Ruling Planet: Mercury

House: Sixth

Mantra: I Analyze

Body Parts: The digestive system

Colors: Tan & Warm yellow

Tarot Card: The Hermit

VIRGO TRAITS & OVERVIEW

Virgo is the sixth sign of the zodiac, to be exact, and that’s the way Virgos like it: exacting. Those born under this horoscope sign are forever the butt of jokes for being so picky and critical (and they can be), but their ‘attention to detail’ is for a reason: to help others. Virgos, more than any other zodiac sign, were born to serve, and it gives them great joy. They are also tailor-made for the job, since common Virgo traits are being industrious, methodical, and efficient. The sense of duty borne by these folks is considerable, and it ensures that they will always work for the greater good.

VIRGO SYMBOLISM + MYTH

The stellar constellation of Virgo has origins in Babylonian society, where it was associated with the goddess Shala, who was depicted holding an ear of grain. To the Babylonians, this goddess ruled over fertility and the harvest, connecting Virgo to some of its earliest archetypal associations.

This connection to the harvest continues into Greek mythology, where Virgo was connected with the goddess Demeter, who ruled over the bounty of the earth and agriculture as well. Virgo is also connected to Ceres through early Roman culture, where she was the ruler of the same agricultural themes.

To this day, Virgo has held this connection with planting, growing, harvesting food, and herbal medicine. In the Middle Ages, Virgo’s virginal symbolism was observed by association with The Virgin Mary.

VIRGO ELEMENT, MODE, AND SEASON

LATE SUMMER

MUTABLE MODE

Virgo is the second of the four mutable signs of the zodiac, who all hold an elemental energy of change at the end of the four seasons. Virgo season is the end of Summer, where the heat of the season is beginning to mix and surrender to the coolness of the upcoming Autumn. This mixed and varied seasonal quality is the root of Virgo’s mutable, adaptive, and changeable nature as an archetype.

EARTH ELEMENT

Virgo’s element is earth, the heaviest and most solid element, thought by ancient astrologers to be the densest form of matter. Earth represents the very structure that all of nature is built with and upon, and without it nothing could take a material form. Virgo’s affinity for being efficient, skilled, and resourceful are all akin to the structure and tangibility of the earth element.

VIRGO PLANETARY RULERSHIP

DOMICILE OF MERCURY

In classical astrology, Mercury was assigned rulership of both Gemini and Virgo. Virgo was thought to be the nocturnal/night home of Mercury, a conscientious and detailed-focused earth sign that allows Mercury to express and enact its most swift and facile functions. Among these are analysis, communication, the ability to discern and discriminate, and fine, manual dexterity.

Those born with Mercury in Virgo will likely find that many of these abilities come naturally and easily to them. Mercury in Virgo folks typically has a keen, perceptive mind. They are also very receptive, considerate, and tuned into their heightened nervous system responses to help them navigate their choices and actions.

DETRIMENT OF JUPITER

Virgo is in polarity with the mutable water sign Pisces. Classically ruled by Jupiter, Pisces likes to explore the expansive emotional and spiritual territory. Being innately intuitive and comfortable with vulnerability, Jupiter-ruled Pisces is a contrast to Mercury-ruled Virgo, who needs to organize, analyze, and discern what is useful.

Imagine Jupiter, the bold, boundless planet of opportunity and philosophy confined to the efficient and perfectly arranged world of the virgin, who likes things just so. Jupiter in Mercury’s sign would have to somewhat compensate for this “detriment,” which may simply mean that natives born with this placement may tend to amplify their attention to detail, or their optimistic and philosophical side may feel constricted under difficult standards.

These standards may or may not be of their own making but may challenge those born with this placement to balance perfection with a need to stay open to exploring and expanding into opportunities.

FALL OF VENUS

Venus was said to be exalted in Pisces by classical astrologers, where she is able to uniquely and auspiciously express her poetic, artistic, and pleasure-seeking qualities. When in the opposite sign of Virgo, Venus was said to be in her fall, which may not pose as strong of an adaptive challenge as a detriment might, yet still puts the planetary force somewhat out of its comfort zone.

Venus wants to love, connect, and attract, but Virgo, being a somewhat cool and dry earth sign, maybe too shy and composed as an archetype to allow Venus’ energy to flow freely. This could present in these natives as the need to take a long time to warm up to and trust those that they love. It can also take form as a tendency to place high expectations for consideration and perfection on those they are in relationships with.

Those with this placement may need to let their guard down and be more accepting of others’ “flaws” to let love, which is sometimes messy, into their lives. Natives with Venus in Virgo benefit from not being too self-critical and by being more loving of themselves. The good news here is that Venus’ creative forces blend with the Virgin’s manual dexterity to often produce great artisans and craftspersons.

VIRGO HOUSE RULERSHIP

THE SIXTH HOUSE

In the modern astrology system of the Twelve Letter Alphabet, each zodiac sign rules one of the twelve houses in the birth chart. This innovation was created by psychological astrologers to match sign affinities to related house topics.

Virgo was assigned the sixth house of health, service, and day-to-day work routines, since Virgo’s earthy and hygienic pursuits are aligned with the concerns of this house. Since Virgo is ruled by the planet of communications, it invites an analytical Mercury sub-signature to the sixth house.

THE FIRST HOUSE

In traditional astrology, Virgo’s planetary ruler, Mercury, was said to find its “joy ” in the first house of self and identity in the birth chart. This house, associated with our bodies and sense of purpose, symbolizes a merging of spirit and matter to form a unique being in the world.

In classical astrology, the degree of the rising sign was found inside the first whole sign house, dividing it into a portion that was above the horizon, and a portion that was below it at the moment of our birth. This is connected to the Hermetic alchemical axiom “as above, so below,” a phenomenon we observe and practice in the magical arts.

Magic and its mysteries are given to us by the god Hermes, who is associated with Mercury, making this planet able to wield special potency as a bridge between the heavens and earth from the first house.

VIRGO CHARACTERISTICS

PERSONALITY

Virgo’s personality traits are derived from its receptive, feminine, or yin qualities, making this sign oriented toward contemplation and engagement with inner awareness. Alive in both, a Virgo woman or Virgo man, those born with the Virgin as their rising, sun, or moon sign have a diligent, adaptable, and observant energy in the core of their personality, an echo of the preparedness and utility of late summer/early fall activities.

As a mutable sign, Virgo holds the qualities of being an alchemical “synthesizer,” able to find relationships between seemingly disparate and disjointed factors to transform these into a meaningful, useful harmony.

Those with the sign of the Virgin prominent in their charts are great at dedicating themselves to projects and relationships that need some care, healing and tending, to restore them back to health, purity, and natural function.

STRENGTHS

The primary Virgo strengths can be found in their mental agility, adaptability, and skillful, meticulous nature. Diligent and observant, these folks think clearly, learn quickly, and gain enormous satisfaction in serving, healing, and helping to bring order, perfection, and practicality to their world.

Cool and conscientious, they are typically able to carefully discern between what is skillful and useful, and what is not. Too busy working on improving themselves and the world around them, they are often humble and modest and are usually too earthy and sensible to become arrogant and self-aggrandizing.

Virgoan powers of communication are powerful and they value developing a functional emotional vocabulary to help themselves and others to be understood. Hard-working and efficient, they are happy to be at the service of friends and family, not in a self-diminishing way, but in a way that is innately considerate and compassionate. Diligent, dexterous, and facile, those born under the sign of the Virgin are blessed with artistic and technical abilities, empowered with Mercury’s signature highly functioning fine motor skills.

The sign of the Virgin is innately connected to the earth and nature, and here we may find some of the world’s great animal lovers and environmental conservationists. The Virgoan archetype reminds us of our dependency on Mother Nature, and the need for our relationship with her to be healthy and reciprocal. These values are often upheld in Virgoan natives who seek to restore bodies, minds, and ecologies back to their purified and intended natural states.

WEAKNESSES

Some potential weaknesses in Virgo’s approach to life are rooted in their great strengths. Though intelligent and mentally dexterous, this highly functional mind can easily become overactive, leading to worry, anxiety, and insomnia. What they think up may become more real than what is actually happening, making it important for these natives to stay grounded in their bodies, breath, and the moment.

The Virgin’s talent for service and healing can get out of hand if they are overidentifying with being useful to others. They may be keeping themselves busy to avoid uncomfortable feelings and need to remember that it’s okay to “just be” at times, and to balance service with some healthy self-care and “healthy selfishness.”

Virgo’s naturally discerning nature can become disproportionate if they are feeling unbalanced, leading them to notice flaws and inefficiencies in themselves and others, more than they notice what is actually good. With this tendency they may hold themselves and others to impossibly high standards of perfection, sometimes causing more stress than anyone needs.

Naturally modest and humble, Virgin natives may become too much so, succumbing to self-doubt and worry that they will never be good enough and that their work will never be worthy of presenting to the world. This may paralyze them from taking risks, sometimes leading to a surprising streak of avoidance and procrastination that normally productive Virgos can fall prey to.

Those born under the sign of the Virgin care deeply about bodily health and protection of the environment, however, they can become inordinately focused on toxins, hygiene, and catching possible diseases. Virgo natives must be careful to not give into obsessive and compulsive rituals, as well as going down the rabbit hole of self-diagnosis. The stress that this causes will only lead to the ill health that they fear.

Virgo children will be well-nurtured if they are encouraged to get their hands dirty and make a mess, to be allowed to make mistakes, and yet be loved unconditionally. Naturally self-critical and self-aware, they may be too sensitive to overly stern criticisms and need to know their self-worth is not connected to how well they perform.

MANTRA AND PURPOSE

The voice of clarity, precision, and utilization comes forward in the Virgo mantra: I analyze. The Virgin’s sense of purpose is all about organizing and dissemination of material resources, so that our lives can flow and operate efficiently and optimally. It is also important to them to be helpful and useful in some way, linking to their alternate mantra: I serve.

The Virgoan’s innate alignment to health preservation and dutiful service is a pillar to their communities and relationships. They attend to the essential details of life that may go unnoticed until they are not functioning properly. We all have Virgo somewhere in our birth chart, so we can look to the house that the sign of the Virgin rules to find the specific area of our life we approach in an organized, contentious, and efficient way, or where we need to call in Virgoan sensibility for material mastery.

Virgo people tend to be drawn to any pursuit where they can sort, repair, and attend to a practical or bodily need. Technical and craftsperson roles are well-suited to this mutable archetype, as well as health care, herbalism, and anywhere precise attention is needed.

VIRGO AT WORK

Virgo’s conscientious and reflective nature makes them uniquely suited for professions where they are needed to analyze data and focus on the details of a project or service. Though earthy and dependable, they are also mutable, so their careers do need to have some dynamic of developing and implementing change and protocols that lead to better efficiency.

At the same time, their sense of timing and order is very important to them, so routine jobs that involve regularity and consistency help them feel focused and grounded on the task at hand. Workplaces where they help organize or can be part of a well-administered team with clear, discernable roles, will help them make effective use of their talents.

Virgos will likely find dirty, cluttered, and untidy workspaces to be a stifling and distracting hazard, so they may work to help create well-attended work and living spaces for others. These folks will certainly need to cultivate this sort of harmonious environment for themselves to feel calm and satisfied.

With keen Mercurial minds, those born under the sign of the Virgin may take to roles in analysis and statistics naturally. They may be involved in designing the formulas for collecting numbers, and also designing the systems that sift and examine the meaning and implications of raw data. This can take form in bookkeeping and accountancy roles as well.

Ruled by Mercury, Virgo has a knack for words and language, and may enjoy careers in translation, linguistics, and speech therapy. They also will likely be quite literary, so will make good writers, copy editors, and fact-checkers, as no detail will go unnoticed by them.

With a strong probability that those born under the sign of the Virgin will make great teachers and mentors, they could be found sharing technical skills of all kinds. This could be in many forms, from computer programming to trades and craftsperson professions. Virgos will likely have a clear, useful, and organized way of disseminating knowledge, and will demand perfection from their students.

The Virgin’s natural critical and discerning facilities will find a home in the world of professional critique. Being interested in nutrition and food quality, they could make excellent food safety inspectors as well as fine dining critics. They may also turn their keen senses and refined tastes to critique the world of fashion, art, literature, and music. To earn their thumbs up will be a great accomplishment!

Facile and dexterous, Virgos have many talents. They are often accomplished makers, crafters, and artisans themselves, producing works of enormous beauty and detail. Their creations may have a twist of ingenuity, or utility, as functional art.

Health is of traditional and personal importance to the Virgo native, who likely had to learn to care for their own delicate digestion and nervous system first. The skills and insights they gain along the way will make them suited to health and nutrition professions of all kinds, like herbalists, naturopaths, dieticians, and wellness practitioner roles in yoga and meditation.

The powerful mental energy and ability that comes with being born in Mercury’s sign will draw the Virgo interest toward psychology and mental health. They may make good social workers, counselors, and talk therapists. They may also even combine their craft and makers skills with mental health work in the form of art therapy.

VIRGO COMPATIBILITY

When exploring overall compatibility in astrology, it’s important to take more than the sun sign into consideration, as the rising sign, moon, and other planetary cross-connections will tell the whole story in relationships. That being said, Virgo natives will tend to blend best with water signs and earth signs; and may need to work harder on relationships with fire signs and air signs.