Mutable Earth and the Summer Harvest

Virgo is known to be an organizer, a fixer, and a fusser. This is because Virgo is deeply dedicated to making things right, structuring both physical and mental processes into more workable forms.

Virgo offers the wisdom of refinement to the zodiac. Through Virgo’s energies, we take something and distill it. We honor life by putting the time in to manage, mold, and bring order to our reality.

In Virgo, we find the sign of editors, accountants, bookkeepers, and professional organizers. Critics, inspectors, researchers, proofreaders, personal assistants, conservationists, and nutritionists all do Virgo’s work, diving into the details, sorting and organizing life into more digestible forms.

As a mutable sign, Virgo is responsible for bridging states of being; within all of this ordering, we find processes that guide transitions. Virgo season, which arrives at the tail end of the summertime, does the big work of pulling us out of summer’s easy enjoyments and into the more focused tempos of the fall. Cooling temperatures invigorate Virgo’s wisdom, helping us to reign in, recollect, and reorganize ourselves for a new part of the yearly cycle.

Placing Virgo in the Seasonal Cycle (August 23 – September 22)

With a bountiful harvest comes hard work, and no sign knows this like Virgo. In Virgo season we bask in the Sun’s warmth and enjoy the abundance of light in the atmosphere, yet simultaneously feel the pull to redirect our energy from midsummer expansions.

In Virgo’s earth sign energy, we find a grounding energetic redirect from the big vibes of Leo season. The natural world offers us the harvest during Virgo’s time of year, as well as the responsibility of tending to the land. Under Virgo’s influence, we purify and prepare, divide, organize, and ready ourselves for cooler months ahead.

While many of us no longer work the land, and even fewer of us depend on the harvest for survival, these rhythms still exist in the wisdom of our bodies. We naturally feel the pull to move inward and redirect at this time of year. Whether it’s back to school, back to work, or another personal turn away from the lavishness of Leo season, humans generally get a little more focused at this time of year.

Planets in Virgo: Focused, Efficient, and Driven by Perfection

Zodiacal energies color planetary expression. The planets take on certain methods, modes, and styles based on their sign placement. In Virgo, we find that planets become oriented towards the physical world, along with the mental strategies that help them organize and structure material reality.

Mercury has plenty of purposeful power when placed in Virgo, its own sign. Mercury rules and exalts in Virgo, offering a unique dignity to this placement. As a result, Mercury’s efficient and practical nature can be put to full use here. Virgo Mercurys are gifted with a dedicated and detailed mind and the ability to put their intelligence to practical use.

Jupiter and Venus, on the other hand, struggle in Virgo. These are the benefic planets, planets that are naturally inclined to ease and enjoyment. However, Virgo’s hard-working, nit-picking nature makes it hard for the benefics to find the openness and gratification that they thrive upon. Virgo focuses on the details. For Jupiter, this takes away from its vastness and depth of perspective. For Venus, the details may mean a constant quest for perfection and beauty.

With the Sun in Virgo, solar warmth is dedicated and purposeful. Virgo Suns usually need to feel useful to others and can be quite ambitious in their pursuits.

The Moon in Virgo is similarly driven by the desire to help and support. The placement can offer form and structure to the Moon’s often overly emotional orientation, but limits the lunar ability to soften and find comfort.

And Saturn in Virgo doles up a double dose of perfectionism. This placement offers powerful focus and constraint, but a tendency to take this a bit too far.

Virgo and the Body: Ruler of Digestive Processes

Virgo rules the abdomen. The small intestine and pancreas are the main organs associated with Virgo, and it’s not hard to understand why. These organs are involved in the digestion and assimilation of food that’s taken into the body. Digestive processes, in general, are ruled by Virgo, a reflection of this sign’s mutability.

Virgo is earthy, but Mercury’s rulership indicates its relationship to mental processes, as well as the overall relationship that exists between body and mind. When Virgo’s energetic expressions get stuck in the head, we lose the stability of earthy connection. Healthy, well-balanced Virgo energy, on the other hand, is both grounded and nimble, fully able to hold and support us in making necessary transitions.

Virgo Traits and Personalities: Earthy Expressions of Formative Abilities

The sign of Virgo is symbolized by the Virgin, whose archetype holds the wisdom of self-containment. As Eleanor Barz writes in Gods and Planets, “It is the nature of the virgin to limit herself, not to pour herself out, not to give”.¹ Yet, in Virgo, we find great importance placed on providing acts of service. This sign does offer itself out, just very carefully.

Virgos tend to hold their energy close, preserving internal resources for the right efforts. They like to feel useful and tend to be quite dedicated, honing the skills they use to show up in the world. So we find that Virgos are often masters of their crafts, continually doing the work to get better. And, not only do Virgos want to be better versions of themselves, they want to improve the world around them. In this, we find Virgo’s tendency to overstep, to tend towards fault-finding, criticism, and even intolerance.

Virgo is both mutable and feminine, so receptivity and impressionability are central to this sign’s nature. Virgos have a way of taking on energies and expressions. Virgos can be easily formed and molded and this sometimes gets them labeled as “do-gooders”, at other times, as copycats.

Within all of Virgo’s fastidiousness and intentionality, we find a unique brand of softness and warmth, very much like the late summer Sun. Those with this placement have earthy energies that care, expressed through conscientious attention to detail and genuine concern for well-being. Here we find Virgo’s receptive abilities in the roles of nurturer and healer.

Virgo Decans and Tarot Correspondences

Virgo Decan I (0-9° Virgo): 9 of Disks

The first decan of Virgo is ruled by the Sun. Here we find Virgo’s humble and diligent energies expressed through care and appreciation. The energies of the decan are rich with a productive willingness; dedication to the small steps that make up a bigger process can be found here.

The 8 of Pentacles, a card that signifies patience and perseverance. is associated with this decan. In the Thoth deck, it is given the name Prudence and bears the image of a large tree abundantly displaying eight full flowers. The theme of honing one’s craft is central to this card. In 36 Secrets, T. Susan Chang writes, “When you draw the 8 of Pentacles, it is time to harvest your own light—what talents and skills do you have to offer the world, and what can you do to perfect then?”² Through Virgo’s first decan we find a thoughtful commitment to the tangible processes we use to create and produce.

Virgo Decan II (10-19° Virgo): 9 of Disks

Virgo’s second decan, ruled by Venus, tells a story about the clash between perfection and imperfection. Here we experience both the processes and pressures involved with bringing things into ideal form.

In 36 Faces, Austin Coppock writes of this decan, “Alchemically, this face provides understanding of the many beautiful and repulsive states the matter attains throughout the Magnum Opus…The residents of this decan oversee the ever-transforming world, guiding and shaping the Great Work on a microcosmic level.”³

Virgo Decan III (19°-29° Virgo): 10 of Disks

Mercury rules Virgo’s final decan where we see a culmination of earthy processes. This is the final time before the Equinox, when darkness begins to take over, lending to themes of finality, endings, death, and old age. We encounter Mercury’s connection to the underworld through this decan.

With Mercury’s rulership and exaltation in Virgo, intelligence around money, wealth, and material realities are key themes of this decan. Transformations occur as earthy experiences conclude. Coppock writes, “The power of this face brings all material processes to their end, simultaneously revealing their full value and terminating them.”⁴

Final Words on Virgo Wisdom

Virgo, often known for its pickiness and critical tendencies, is a sign of dedication and diligence. Here we find the intelligence of Mercury applied to tangible realities of life.

The Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset, once said, “For the person for whom small things do not exist, the great is not great.”

We find this wisdom reflected in Virgo, who knows the small things matter a great deal. Here we encounter the soft warmth of Virgo, its gentle consideration for the earth and its gifts, and the willingness to play a small, but important part in the vast experiences of this life.

For more on zodiac signs, check out your monthly horoscope!

SOURCES

Barz, Ellynor. Gods and Planets: The Archetypes of Astrology. Chiron Publications, 1988.
Burk, Kevin. Astrology: A Comprehensive Guide to Classical Interpretation. Serendipity Press, 2001.
Chang, T. Susan. 36 Secrets. Anima Mundi Press, 2023.
Coppock, Austin. 36 Faces: The History, Astrology, and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press, 2014.
Oken, Alan. Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology. Bantam Books, 1980.
Starsky, Stella, and Quinn Cox. Sextrology: The Astrology of Sex and the Sexes. HarperCollins, 2004.

If you liked this post, you might enjoy these other astro articles:

Rulerships & Significations of Mercury
The Sign of Leo: Fixed Fire in the Heart of the Summer
Venus-Moon Gates
The Moon in the Signs: A Map of Personal Soft Spots