We’re in Virgo – Excerpt on its Alchemical Nature

We are now in the sign of Virgo. It happens to be my sun birth sign also.

This is an excerpt from Malvin Artley’s Astrological newsletter, who also writes about Chinese astrology. This is about western astrology, but I think it has bearing on the Chinese understanding of the Earth element as the alchemical medium. Virgo is ruled by the planet Mercury, traditionally the sign of the Alchemist. Mercury = mercurial, the sign of liquid metal that is mutable. Virgo is considered “mutable earth”, i.e. flexible and changeable Earth, and mediates the half way point in the adept’s journey around the zodiac between form and formless. Very appropriate for Taoist alchemists experimenting with relationship between Matter and Spirit.
He also focuses on Virgo as relying on “experience”, which is the cardinal principle of qigong and Taoist cultivation.
-michael

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Virgo involves ‘the service of the immediately present’, and as such, it is a sign that is very much concerned and connected with service. It has been called “a place of slow, gentle—yet powerful crises and periodic developments”—the blinded stage, wherein objective experience still holds sway over the consciousness of the indwelling Soul. For all that people say about Virgo, it is a sign that ‘gets things done’ and usually causes a bit of friction along the way because it does produce such a purposeful and almost pedantic adherence to good form and right timing in the ministrations of the tasks set before it. In its highest essence, Virgo is the one sign that most closely connects us with our source—our Spirit, for this sign rules over the monadic essence of humanity—our highest expression in this world.

Virgo represents both angelic Light and the essence of form, too. It is both the Mother and the Child. It is said that in Virgo, matter and Spirit exchange and support each other. “I am the Mother and the Child. I, God, matter am” is the key note of the sign. The subject is rather abstruse, to be certain, but we could possibly sum up the entire theme of the sign by saying that Virgo enables us to realize both the highest use and expression of our bodies (vehicles) and the very Life-force that called our bodies into being. There is no sign that more greatly emphasizes purity, both of form and of Spirit, than Virgo. That is why it is the one sign that stands out above the rest when it comes to the healing arts. Virgo connects all forms with their divine intent. The best description of the sign is said to be “Christ in you, the hope and glory.”

If there is, perhaps, one word that best describes the modus operandi and raison d’être of Virgo, it would have to be experience. Experience is won through hard work, adherence to the Plan (or human plans), careful attention to detail and through a steady persistence, all for which the typical Virgoan is well known. Just as a mother broods over her child, so the Virgoan broods over their appointed tasks and service. There is a richness of experience that comes through all that hard work, and no one knows the detail of a thing or process better than a Virgo. So, if you ever want to know how something is done, ask a Virgoan. Virgo is known for its sheer capacity for work and service, and that is the true purpose of the Christ Light and principle—to serve until the liberation (purpose) of every last charge is affected.

However, in order to gain experience, one must have a vehicle or method for doing so. Life, form and experience are united in Virgo—the oldest of the astrological signs. The Mother is known as the greatest of the angelic host, and it is through the experience of motherhood that humanity comes to know Virgo best. Just as a mother builds the body of the gestating fetus from her own substance, in cooperation with the incoming Soul and with the greater necessities of the Work and of karma, so the Mother builds in cooperation with our planetary Lord as He fulfills His greater purpose and builds his experience through the medium of our planet. We are—each and every one of us—the cells built into the planetary body. Our Spirits are one with the Mother, with the planetary Lord and with the evolving planetary life. It is a great mystery, but it is the crux and the essence of Virgo.

So, we are one with our bodies, yet we are not our bodies. We are one with planetary purpose and pure in that intention, yet we are separate entities, each with our own individual life, purpose and evolution. As we come to know our own bodies, so we come to know our own purpose—or at least the history of that purpose. Most importantly, however, as we come to know our true purpose for life in this world, then we can begin to adapt our vehicles to that service and make them more amenable to the work and service at hand. That is what is always promised and given at this solar festival every year—the adaptation of our lives to the greater purpose at hand and a renewed dedication to serve more fully and effectively. With these points in mind, let us begin to examine what this full moon has in store and on offer to us.