How to Soothe a Virgo

Real-life guidance on how to get along and be friends with the 6th sign of the Zodiac

By Mary English

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2013 Mary English
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78099-847-3

Contents

Acknowledgements...........................................................ixIntroduction...............................................................11. The Sign................................................................112. How to Make a Chart.....................................................323. The Ascendant...........................................................374. The Moon................................................................455. The Houses..............................................................536. The Problems............................................................607. The Solutions...........................................................648. Soothing Tactics........................................................71Astrological Chart Information and Birth Data..............................90Further Information........................................................93References.................................................................94

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The Sign

What 'is' a Virgo? Well, if you read the papers or magazines, thedates for Virgo are generally 24th August to 22nd September. I say'generally' because it does depend on which publication youread and also where in the world and at what time you wereborn. This is because the orbit of the Earth around the Sun isn'texactly the same as our calendar.

In fact it takes 365.26 days for the Earth to go round the Sun.Our calendar is 365 days long, so every so often we have to havea leap year to straighten things out and sort out that .26 of a day!

In Astrology we don't have to worry about this because wework things out from the perspective of us looking up at the skyand seeing the Sun move round the Earth (which it doesn't do inreality).

If you were to imagine that we have divided the whole of thesky above us all around the Earth into 12 equal portions, one ofthose portions is called Virgo. We start the calculation from thespring solstice (in the sign of 0° Aries), a measurement relating tohow the Earth spins on its axis. As it spins it moves from side toside, and as it moves nearer and further away from the Sun thiscreates the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Bythe time we get to August/September the Sun has reached thepart of the sky that's the 6th division ... and we call that Virgo. Soa Virgo Sun sign just means that the Sun, that shiny ball of fire inthe sky, is in the bit of the sky that we've called Virgo, and Virgois shorthand for 151º–180º away from the bit of the sky we'vecalled Aries.

Astrology uses astronomical data to make the calculationsnecessary to say what sign is happening at which month of theyear, but as the orbits have nothing to do with our clock time onEarth, the sign of Virgo changes at different times of day andnight.

To make sure (because we are working with the analytical andprecise sign of Virgo!) we have the right data, we are going to beusing a Swiss website. More about that in Chapter Two.

Each sign of the Zodiac has a planet that looks after it. We callit its 'ruler', and the ruler for Virgo (and Gemini) is Mercury.

Mercury the Speedy Extreme Planet

Mercury's orbit around the Sun is four times as fast as the Earth's,so its year is only 88 Earth days long. However, it spins so slowlyon its axis that one day on Mercury is equal to 59 days on Earth.It is also the smallest planet in our solar system and is not so easyto spot, the best times being early evening in the spring and earlymorning in the autumn in the northern hemisphere.

The American Space Agency NASA sent a probe calledMessenger to explore the planet in 2004 and it became the firstspacecraft to orbit the innermost planet on 18th March 2011. Itwas going to cease its investigations in March 2012 but hassecured funding for an additional year of research.

So far, they have discovered that the surface of Mercury iscovered in volcanic explosions, craters, and evidence of floodvolcanism. The surface temperature is of two extremes. On thesunny side it reaches 430° C and on the dark side of the planet itgoes into deep freeze with temperatures reaching a low -180° C.Hmm, don't fancy living there!

Mercury the Go-Between

If we look at Mercury in our solar system, we see that it standsbetween us and the Sun, and I agree with Christina Rose, whowrites in her Astrological Counselling:

Mercury, positioned closest to the Sun, stands rather as onewho introduces the solar energy to all the other planets, andvice-versa. Thus, his function is that of an introductory link,transmission, connection and we may liken Mercury to a go-between,an agent or courier between the Sun and the rest ofthe solar system. On an incoming wavelength, this function isexperienced within the individual as recognition, perceptionand awareness. On an out-going wavelength, it is that whichspurs us toward the communication of those perceptions andawareness.

Astrologers therefore think of Mercury in the birth chart assomething that acts as a mediator or negotiator and helps withcommunication.

Mercury the Messenger God

In myth, Mercury is named after the god that the Greeks calledHermes. And Hermes replaced the Babylonian god Nebo andthen later the Romans named him Mercurius. Already this poorgod has had a number of name changes.

In the Greek myths, soon after being born, Mercury set off insearch of the cattle belonging to his brother Apollo. He madetheir 'hooves go backward, the front ones last and the back onesfirst' and hid them in the cave of the sun god Apollo.

He is also known as the 'trickster god' because of all thenaughty things he got up to.

Hermes was also the only god capable of travel to the deadlyHades underworld and back again. This is similar to the realityof the planet's surface temperatures being so extreme. Hot/cold.Mercury is depicted as a god with winged feet, travelling greatdistances at lightning speeds, being the messenger of the gods. Itis these attributes that we mirror in Astrology. We're not sayingthat the attributes of Virgo are exactly the same as the planetMercury, just that they're similar, that they have alike qualities.Mercury has a dark and light side: Virgo can be analytical andseemingly unfeeling on one hand, and attuned to health andhealing on the other. It's these qualities and dichotomies we'llnow discuss.

Virgo the Virgin

As the glyph representing Virgo is the maiden/virgin, we mustnot confuse Virgo qualities as being totally 'pure'. This is notvirgin as in chastity but virgin as in not beholden to any man:'Virginity is to a woman what honour is to a man, the symbol ofthe fact that she is not a slave.'

So, Virgo is about thinking 'outside of the box', being free tothink ... and think they certainly do. If you want to tire yourselfout, get a Virgo to record everything they think in 30 minutes.This is different from Aquarius thinking, which...