“Virgo attempts to achieve by mastering the tools that the world offers it, by creating an orderly, dependable relationships with the world around it.”
– Robert Hand
Analytical craftsmanship in life
Look to the zodiac signs like a METHODOLOGY OF LIFE. Each sign is part of a process, and one leads into the other, picking up on the work that the previous signs have started. When we think of the signs with a stereotypical lens, it’s easy to feel like the party is over once we move from Leo to Virgo. The courtly drama and pizzazz of Leo may fall flat once in analytical and methodic Virgo. This is a misunderstanding, and Virgo deserves a robust rebrand and PR campaign because, without it, we wouldn’t be able to survive life on Earth.
Coming to terms with the necessities and duties of life
Think of it this way:
Aries teaches us to take the first step into the world. It’s about courage and action.
In the Taurus dimension, we meet our resources, firstly through our experience of our bodies. Here we connect to nature and how to find the resources available to us.
Then, in Gemini, we learn about our minds’ resources and how to carry forth ideas and communicate them. It’s through the Twins that we learn to engage and learn from the world.
Cancer puts us in touch with the realm of finding a place to feel safe and also the richness of our inner world of emotions and imagination.
Once we arrive in Leo, we’re ready to share with the world something that is ours. Here we wrestle with how to bring into the world something that carries our creative DNA in it. Leo closes the quadrant where we’re moving through the developmental stages of knowing who we are. These first signs are egocentric in their way,’ as in focused on who we are, what we have, and how we show up in our families and the immediate world around us.
Once we reach Virgo, we’re beckoned to polish and improve our tools, skills, and talents to be of SERVICE to others. It’s about deepening our understanding of our resources and how we tend to their keep, and how we work in the world. Virgo teaches us that being in the world isn’t a vacation for the soul. We are sobered by an encounter with the necessities and duties in this life. It’s in Virgo that we learn that we have to ‘pay rent for the life we’re given.’
It may sound harsh, but it’s a required lesson. We all have Virgo somewhere in our birth charts, and it’s in this area that we have to learn what our craft is in life.
In the wise words of astrologer Robert Hand:
“Virgo represents the completed individual, not as Leo standing alone and glorying in itself, but rather confronting both the physical and social universes and trying to come to terms with them. Virgo approaches the physical universe as an obstacle to which one must adapt, a framework through which one can learn to be effective, and a reality that must be served.”
The craft of Virgo is about encountering how we serve in the world.
It helps us answer how our inherent gifts can help make the world a better place.
The artisan at their forge
Lessons we learn from Virgo:
- Efficiency – here, we move from our beingness to how we affect the world around us. Virgo teaches us our existence needs to be also anchored in how we get along in the world and make the best of it. In Leo, we play, in Virgo, learn how to work and make our work useful.
- Doing a well-done job – I believe part of the misunderstanding about Virgos is that there’s little social recognition for the work they do in the world. That’s not saying that they shouldn’t be recognized. The emphasis for Virgo is in knowing that their well-done job has improved, helped, and ameliorated a situation. The gratification is in knowing that improvement has taken place.
- Humility – Another oft-misunderstood aspect of Virgo in our culture that is all for bragging one’s epicness. The etymology of humility is linked to ‘being of the earth.’ It’s about being rooted and grounded, and not swayed by flattery and showmanship. As such, it teaches us that being humbly grounded, we don’t need to compromise what our souls know is best.
- Self-analysis and Critical Thinking – At its core, Virgo is here to change the world, to make it more effective, and to improve a situation that they encounter. Here they may be lead by the siren’s call for PERFECTIONISM instead of aiming for PERFECTION. Perfect is about ‘making something COMPLETE,’ not pristine or ideal in the way that our Judeo-Christian culture has inculcated on us for centuries. As such, Virgos teach us that we need to examine not just what we’re doing, but first and foremost ourselves. Critical thinking and analysis are applied to the Self and the world. This leads to one of their vital gifts: DISCERNMENT.
- The Divine is in the DETAILS – Virgo focuses on the details, the minutia of daily life, that makes it all possible. They know that the small carry repercussions to the larger. Here their gift of discernment and analysis is revealed. Their approach to improving their world isn’t through a bulldozer, but through effecting small changes that in the longer terms affect the bigger picture.
- Pragmatism and Service – As an Earth Sign (alongside Taurus and Capricorn), Virgo believes that things have a purpose and should serve something. For this, I think the archetype of the Artisan and Craftsman are linked to this earthy analytical sign. Virgos teach us that functionality also has beauty, and one shouldn’t be without the other.
- Stewardship – Lastly, Virgo teaches us that we are stewards of this body and this life we have. As such, we must maintain it well and leave it better than we found it. The SELF is the ruler, but our Ego is the steward. This order of things should be respected.
Downton Abbey & Virgo
Downton Abbey took the world by storm, and for all its six seasons, we were glued to the screen following the adventures of the upstairs and downstairs inhabitants of this fictional Yorkshire country estate. While we may think that the upstairs characters represented Leo in all their drama and outstanding wardrobe, while the downstairs staff stands for Virgo, we need to widen our scope.
Both parties represent aspects of Virgo.
Sure, we could probably make a case for each zodiac sign and link it to a character, but now, let’s focus on Virgo. While the downstairs staff led by the irreprehensible Carson, the butler, works tirelessly to serve and maintain the country state; in many instances, we see the pride they carry in performing a well-done job. Carson of all the characters brings a Virgoan assurance that he’ll do what is necessary to make it all happen, while keeping his sharp eye in making sure things are as they should be, striving to reach perfection.
But Lord Grantham, while being the sovereign of the estate, also knows of his duty as a steward of this legacy. He strives to do what’s best for the estate and be sure that future generations will benefit from it. In his way, he’s also at the service of this property and legacy. The real sovereign of the story is the estate and all that comes with it. All the inhabitants of Downton Abbey are, in their way, servants to something bigger than themselves.
Much of the show’s plot revolves around ideas of duty, responsibility, and the desires of the heart. The paradox between duty, responsibility, and the heart’s desires is part of the human condition. In our ways, we all have in our lives now.
But Virgo, wherever you may have it in your birth chart, is here to remind you that you’re a steward of your gifts, and they’re here to serve the world, helping it be a better place than how you found it.
