Virgo: A Quest for Vitality

One of the hats I wear is "Astrologer".  I am especially interested in the more esoteric or occulted side of things; the stuff you don't usually read about and might have to unleash your passion to find.  I feel my studies of the Tree of Life assist me in lending "sense" to what otherwise might seem incongruent factors.

As I've detailed here before, I rather love exploring cosmic relationships - the way in which energies string through the Universe as numbers, letters, sounds, colors, archetypes, etc., and gain symbol in material reality through the luminaries, planets, and constellations of Stars.  In fact, I have predominately been away from this blog for the past half-year to work on my on-line grammatikos, which will attest to this particular interest of mine.

Now with Autumn Equinox swiftly approaching I thought it was a perfect opportunity to return to posting by diving into the Zodiac Signs!  I specifically mention Autumn Equinox because a significant Tradition views the Zodiac as the "Initiates Path", when it is began with Virgo's seed-flame.  This is because the flame then passes through the Equinox-Gate and enters "the Within", questing through the inner workings of each Sign in increasingly Realized stages of potentiality.  Thus it felt rather pertinent to post what I have written on Virgo in these final days of the Virgo-Sun, before we pass the Gate that will lead us within:

I start the path through the Signs with Virgo because a significant formula puts Virgo at the starting gate.  She is the cornerstone of the spiritual culture; the virgin seed (that is Divinity impervious to the material condition); the flame unsquelched even when buried in the dark of earth.  She represents the New Beginning even as she comes forth with the harvest in her hands.

Virgo's letter is Yod which is likewise perceived as a "seed-flame".  Each Hebrew letter has a form of Yod in its structure, so Yod is said to be the cornerstone of the Aleph-Bet.  Although through its sound Yod came to be associated with the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘arm', its form was originally taken from the hieroglyph for ‘reed' or ‘chaff', much closer to the English letter ‘I'.  This is rather fitting on several levels, my favorite being that a Yod attached as a suffix to another word actually means "mine".  Not surprisingly, Virgo resonates to themes of core-level identification and the process of identifying.  On the body Virgo relates to the gut.  Given the Virgo's tendency toward overanalysis one of the Archetype's lessons is to identify their "gut reaction" and go with it.  A perfect mantra for the Sign is "I hear the small, still inner voice and create wonders because of it."

Being correlated to the gut Virgo also relates to digestion and nutrient intake, or the bodily equivalent to the harvest where the final selection (i.e. analysis) is made between assimilable material and rejected waste.  By attending to "the process" Virgo unfolds the powers of creation, generating a worthy system in which it can truly be said that the Divine Undertaking is not covered up or altered by even the most basic levels of material existence.  Virgo teaches us that even in flesh there are transforming and vitalizing powers.