Sun in Virgo…Mercury in Virgo

 Inca-style agricultural terracing in Peru

(photo credit: Alexon Scheppa/released into public domain)

Come 11:03 in the evening (UT/+0) time on August 22nd, the Sun will enter Virgo, beginning a couple of weeks where earth sign influences rise to the fore. The greater backdrop to this will still be the ongoing evolution of water sign emotionality. So all we do, everything we deal with during the solar month of Sun in Virgo will have emotional overtones and considerations.

Once Mercury joins the Sun in Virgo as of August 23rd at 10:38 in the evening (UT/+0) time, Virgo’s focus on all things ‘health, work’ service’ will bring up all sorts of questions about what we’re doing, how well we’re doing it, whether things are headed in the right direction…and, in tossing in ongoing water sign (trine) effects, the health of our emotionality, mentality, choices, relationships, economy and attitudes will all be on the table.

But for one day…that first day of Sun in Virgo…it’s all about the Sun. And since Royal Star Regulus is sitting at 0 Virgo (which I’ve come to think of as the celestial frequency at which self ‘decontamination’ or ‘purification’ is mandated and cannot be shifted off onto someone else), that one day will start us into a new phase by set a Virgo tone which will apply for the full solar traverse of Virgo (August 22nd through September 22nd) and other such ‘dealings with life’ – ours and that around us.

We’ve already been visited by this year’s Venus in Virgo transit – to recall, that began on July 22nd and ended a few days ago on the August 18th…and for one, I didn’t have a whole lot of fun with it.

(Was it productive? Yes. Was it fun? Not really!)

My point is that the nature of Venus in Virgo which is more about ‘finding where things can be improved so as to produce the effects we want’ are now coming into solar focus – meaning our life becomes a vehicle through which we will experience what works and what needs some improvement.

Once Mercury moves into Libra on September 8th/9th (depending on which time zone you're in) that ‘experiencing’ becomes more mental (take that as you will – all forms apply!) and more detailed. So as a ‘subset’ of the total Sun-in-Virgo period, the August 8 through September 9 Mercury-in-Virgo sector marks a time when we have an opportunity to assess what’s going on with ourselves, with others and with the total functionality of our experience…and when our mindset – or our experiences – will be ripe for helping us figure out how to improve things, whether that’s what we’re doing (or how well we’re doing it) and even if what we’re doing is going to get us where we want to go.

And if not, why not.

And if not, whether that means that maybe we don’t’ really want to go…or get there. Let’s face it, we all have ‘oh I wish I would…’ things in our lives. But if we spend all our time doing something else, it seems sensible to ask ourselves whether we actually want to accomplish (or be) that other thing?

Just as an example…one of the areas many (many!) of us have issues is in the relationship arena. We don’t think of Virgo as being “about relationships” but since there is no real ‘isolation’ in the circle of life, that’s just an example of how Virgo can get you so absorbed in the details that you don’t see the forest for the trees…or the life or lifetime which is slipping by while you’re not doing what you know deep inside you want to do, creating the life you really want to have.

So I have this friend who, throughout the more than several years that I’ve known him has been picking women who he knows are the ‘wrong girl.’ (His term, not mine.) But he just keeps picking them.

What’s that about? Don’t be too quick to dismiss this as a Virgo trait, because whatever the third sign to any given sign is speaks to the ‘nature’ of our thinking on the subject.

Counting Virgo as “one,” the third sign to Virgo is…what? SCORPIO. And yes, though Virgo isn’t “known” for compulsivity, there is a definite ‘thread’ of Scorpionic “obsessiveness” which is part and parcel of the Virgo vibe.

This is one of those factoids which as an astrologer didn’t make sense to me until I noticed this interesting habit every Virgo I know (and have known) absolutely has. And when I started asking around, I found out that every Virgo everyone else I know knows also does the same thing.

What did I find? Virgos (we’re speaking principally Sun sign Virgos here) all seem to live by the slogan “when in doubt, eliminate it.” And when we get to the ‘cut it out’ thing, we’re talking Scorpio.

And Scorpio IS the third sign to Virgo.

And the third harmonic to any sign is about the ‘nature’ of our mentality – the habits we bring to our mentality, regardless of what’s on our third house (of mentality and thought) or where our natal Mercury is…or where Mercury is by transit.

This gives us a big clue about why Virgo is the sign of making things more effective or efficient in order for us to (eventually) reach our goals. In Virgo lies an enormity of potential and mental power – this latter being the signature of Scorpio as Virgo’s 3rd harmonic.

So if Virgo is about ‘perfecting’ our act and getting ourselves in shape (be that physically, mentally, emotionally or – at some level especially spiritually/universally, considering the polarity sign is Pisces)…the ‘focus’ which at some level does seem to amount to an obsession with Virgo folks and thus with everyone else as the Sun ‘lights’ up this area of our lives, then the question becomes very much one of getting to the root of why we think or do or choose as we do so that we are able to deal with that…and thus eliminate whatever the ‘toxicity’ (non-functionality) is in our lives so that we can move forward more freely and get where we want to go.

Bearing this in mind, then we go back to that idea of what we continue to do the way we do it (or in the company of those we choose to do it with) where we aren’t improving. Where we aren’t moving forward in our life or getting any closer to those dreams we all have for ourselves.

It’s easy not to think about it, and let’s be real here – the Sun’s yearly transit of Virgo is a prime and primal time during which it’s absolutely easy to just ‘keep on keepin’ on’ while making excuses for why we aren’t getting to that thing which will fulfill our dreams or provide us with some measure of spiritual or emotional (Piscean) balance.

So as the Sun moves into Virgo, we can expect some realization of what’s not working…or what we want to capitalize on by ‘working it’ at an even higher level…to come upon us. For some of us it will merely be that earthy sense we feel stirring in our innards. (Virgo is very into those ‘innard functions.’) Then again, life may well present you with issues which challenge your functionality. Or sense or even you desire for accomplishment.

With Mercury entering Virgo a day after the Sun, we take a breath…and then we take the plunge. But let’s not think results are instantaneous. Being the astrologer on board here (yes, I need one of those signs to put in my car) I can look ahead and see the major road signs coming down the energy pipeline. We’re about to hit a Sedna station on August 25th and that speaks to Virgo’s first week being about reckoning with the need to evolve.

This station comes with a bit of a surprise – call it a twist on the cosmic theme. And that we’ll discuss in the next post here on the blog.

The September portion of the Virgo run (read: our experience of Life and Mentality through the Virgo lens) there will be a whole slew of challenges headed out way. We’re going to hear (on the celestial level) from influences generated by the relative positioning of Ixion and Pholus (which yes, for you who know this pair is enough to make your toes curl) shifts of signs coming from the Ceres (planning) and Pallas (wisdom born of dispassionate perspective), Mercury romping on into Libra just as Venus moves into Scorpio (suggesting there are emotional issues yet to come from people in our lives or with regards TO people in our lives)…

....and then we’ll also get a revisiting of the still-ongoing conjunction of Pluto to fixed star (nebula) Facies. 

Pluto-Facies is the experience of complicated issues which we know will compromise us unless we deal with them. But how to deal with them?

All that and (dare I say…?) we’re in for the onset of the next ‘breaking down’ period which precedes the November Solar Eclipse at 11 Scorpio.

Yes, that eclipse.

Let us also remember that what we’re talking about here is the Sun and Mercury moving into Virgo – the recognition, the realization, the having to think it through and think about it and get some clarity on things part of the process. With Mars initially positioned in Cancer as this pair of ingresses sweep through we can not like whatever we don’t like and life will still insist that we pay attention.

Or…alternately…we can take the Mars energetic in hand and get to work on that thing which is so hard for us. Cancer being the eleventh sign (aka 11th harmonic) from Virgo this points to all those things we really do want to achieve in life.

Since Mars is just ending its transit of Cancer, the likelihood is that life is going to focus us on what isn’t yet done and what isn’t working properly…and some of us will take that on and carry forth into a development of solutions (or at least a willingness to venture into risky waters) as Mars moves on into Leo.

Others will greet the challenges and be content to slide by. Or problems may arise and then seemingly settle back down (which strikes me as a bit of a dirty trick as the problem unsolved is the problem which until it’s solved remains unsolved).

But the Virgo point here is that Mars will enter Virgo come mid-October. So here’s your choice: you can tackle your issues (denials, obsessions, challenges, lacks, needs, tendency to over/under focus) now and be in better shape to deal with life more productively come Mars-in-Virgo, or you can play and skate and goof around and temporize and cope without fixing now and meet up with consequences come October and November (read: during the most intense portion of a Solar Eclipse period which – surprise! – is going to take place with Mercury in retrograde).

 A photo taken by NASA's Spirit rover of the Columbia Hills inside Gusev Crater on Mars

(photo credit: NASA-JPL April 2005)

We choose to make our life what it is. The compromises we make or refuse to allow ourselves to make, the efforts we invest or choose not to invest in this relationship, that habit, this way of doing things, that way of spending our time…they all amount to the truth of what we want.

That truth may be a happy one. That truth may be a painful one. Whatever it is, step one is knowing what it is and that it is what it is.

Then we get to apply that Scorpio 3rd harmonic to our Virgo essence…which for these next few weeks is ‘highlighted’ and made more accessible to us than at other times. The operative question is why…and that applies to the happy, unhappy, productive and destructive choices we make. There is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ here, merely the identifying the ‘what’ and deciding whether you think that – in the long run – is going to help you be satisfied with your life, how you’ve lived your life and the humanity you’ve allowed yourself to embody and experience in being human.
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